If you're looking to check out what these popular "Saw" movies are all about, "Saw V" definitely isn't the place to start. At this point, anyone who is still following the series must meet both of the following criteria:

A taste for watching people get mutilated in creative and disturbing ways.

An intricate knowledge of the first four movies.

Still with us? Then "Saw V" is going to be a reasonably satisfying film. The level of creativity with the Rube Goldberg-influenced torture chambers seems to be down a little bit from the past few entries, with maybe 70 percent as much blood and anguished screams as your typical torture-porn movie. But this entry does a lot to clear up the hanging questions that muddied "Saw III" and "Saw IV," which will please dedicated fans. "Saw V" isn't anywhere close to the best "Saw" movie, but it makes the entire series coalesce a little bit better.

By now, most horror fans have figured out that individual "Saw" sequels shouldn't be judged like other slasher movies. Because they come out each year, and tend to flash back and forward in time, it's more like watching an episode of "Lost" than a "Friday the 13th" sequel. David Hackl is a first-time "Saw" director, but like everyone else who has written or directed an episode, he has close ties to the series - serving as production designer for the middle three movies. Say what you want about the depraved content of this franchise, the filmmakers seem to have a plan.

"Saw V" begins at the end of "Saw IV," which is also the end of "Saw III" (the big "Saw IV" twist was that it ran on a parallel timeline to the previous film). We know that the Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell) is dead, and Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is his apprentice. The latest chapter splits time about 60-40 between the past and present, showing us how the Jigsaw and Hoffman got together, along with a new set of victims.

While "Saw V" will be much easier to follow than the almost undecipherable "Saw IV," anyone trying to watch this as a self-contained piece of cinema will feel as if they just walked into the middle of a really messed-up game of Clue. More than "Hostel," "Child's Play" or any other horror series, you really need to start from the beginning.

The latest "Saw" also has some problems unrelated to the narrative. While Bell has created one of the better horror villains in recent history, Mandylor isn't much scarier than his "Picket Fences" character. It's hard to see how the series is going anywhere but downhill as his screen time expands.

Hackl weaves scenes from the previous films into this one in clever ways, without adding to the confusion. The director also does a good job of maintaining the dark tone, which includes FBI offices that look as if they're being illuminated by night-lights, and dungeons that look as if you'd catch a venereal disease or two just by touching the door handles.

Of course, much worse things than a case of herpes await the victims of "Saw V." It's not often that a first-time director manages to squeeze an evisceration, a decapitation and a bathtub electrocution into one film.

-- Advisory: This is a "Saw" film. Do we really need to say more?

Saw V: Horror. Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Julie Benz. Directed by David Hackl. (R. 88 minutes. At Bay Area theaters. To see complete movie listings and show times, and to buy tickets for select theaters, go to sfgate.com/movies.)